The Rebellion Story/Q&A

Q&A

Q: Was it good?

A: It depends on how you want to watch it. Shinbo mentioned that "You should be totally ready before watching this movie", He's not lying; Chiwa Saito mentioned that "This movie will totally cause people to have mixed reactions", and she's not lying.

I for one see the movie as "Magica Quartet 's own take of End of Evangelion".
Note: This is not meant to be a comparison between Madoka and Eva.

Q: How many people died and how many were resurrected (if only in an alternative scenario/universe)?

A: In a very strict sense of speaking: No one died. Homura basically defy "The Law of Cycle" by taking out all the mahou shoujo (more like every single person) that are dead or disappeared at the previous series (taken away by Godoka) and reshaped the universe by putting them in, resurrecting them.

Q: Were there any new contracts? If so, who and with what wish(es)?

A: There is no new contract whatsoever in this movie.

Q: What's the deal with Nagisa Momoe?

A: Her real name is Bebe. Her existence basically confirmed that she is Charlotte in the previous universe.

A2: Rather, her real name is Nagisa Momoe, but the girls, only seeing her in witch form, call her "Bebe" in ignorance of her witch name.

Q: Is there a post ED scene?

A: Yep. It's mostly a symbolism (like how the moon is literally cut 90 degrees into half). QB pops up, Homura danced around QB and QB turned into a corpse, followed by Homura jumping off the ledge, making it look like she suicided.

Q: How much Yuri is there in the movie?

A: Homura admits that she loves Madoka, but she only tells her indirectly. Kyouko and Sayaka do have a proper closure to their relationship though.

Q: Did the Japanese like it or hate it?

A: So far, they loved it. From what I read of course.

Q: Was there any preview information about further material coming anytime soon?

A: There is no post credit trailer or whatsoever that indicates a sequel or anything, but everyone who watched the movie will definitely think there will be a sequel. There HAS to be. They can't just end the story like that.

A2: Interviews have staff on record as being up for continuations, if able (primarily regarding plot ideas).

Q: How is it possible that Homura turns into a witch?

A: Remember Madoka's wish was to take away the curse before each Mahou Shoujo gets consumed by it and turns into a witch. That prevents the process of turning into one, and thus also elimates the existence of witches. In other words, it is still possible to turn into a witch, but it has not happened, or been observed, because Godoka interferes before it happening. Thus no one knows about it, except for Homura and QB. QB only knows about it because Homura vaguely remembers it from the previous world, and told QB about it at the end of the tv series.

Q: What is with Homura's sudden change of heart?

A: As Homura starts to regain more and more memories, of the movie world and the previous world, she realizes that it was not acceptable for Godoka to sacrifice herself for everyone. After all, they are still not together. She mentions during the later half of the movie, that she should not have let Madoka do it (as in turn into Godoka). Remember her resolve during the tv series (which happened again in the movie), that she could not trust anyone and had to take things into her own hands. Thus, realizing that she could create and shape a world inside her own labyrinth, she probably realized that she could extend the scale by taking a part of Godoka's power. Thus she was able to create and shape the new universe to her own liking.

Q: Were more questions raised than answered?

A: One remains:

c) How would Homura's new powers affect the new world, the existence of witches, entropy itself remains unexplained. Whether will there be witches or new enemies are not explained. What will happen to the new world, the fate of entropy and all that is implied that it will be left for Homura to decide. She's basically a god now. However one thing's confirmed: Homura is currently confining Godoka into her own, rewritten universe. ( based on some speculation, Homura merely took over madoka post as the Goddess as her main aim is to let Madoka have a happy life instead of burdening herself with the task of goddess. SO everything is the same as when Godoka is still in charge. however 1 interesting question arise, Homura told Madoka that they will be enemies. Is that signalling a sequel? or simply Angel Vs Demon concept?)

APPEND: There seems to be a contradiction here. In the rebuilt universe with demons (Pre-Rebellion) Madoka and Sayaka does not exist so they cannot be trapped by Kyubey. Now in the Rebellion movie, during the part where Homura realizes that the imaginary Mitakihara is a result of her witch-self, she implicitly follows the logic that "I am the only one who remembers Madoka from the previous universe, so if Madoka exists here in this imaginary Mitakihara, the witch must be myself". If I recall correctly, Kyubey explicitly states that Madoka, Kyouko, Mami as "anomalies". This may be because in the Pre-Rebellion universe the real Kyouko is not a student, and the real Mami does not have Bebe with her. The strange part is that Madoka somehow recovers her memories as if she existed in the Pre-Rebellion universe.

Q: Why would QB want to take over the universe?

A: This is not explained either. The biggest possibility is pure curiosity.

Edit: Now I remember, Homura did explain about the concept of witches and all the experiences Homura faced before the universe has rewritten to QB in the new world. And in the movie...QB went lengths to preserve Homura into an in-between state in order to test her theory....
Edit: In the movie Kyubei mentioned that he wanted to harvest energies more efficiently utilizing witches that Homura previously explained.
Homura, you really shouldn't have done that...

Q: How do the fake and real Mitakihara co-exist?

A: This is probably related to her witch powers. In the movie, her real body is seen sleeping on top of the pillar (in the real world) with her soul gem at the roof of the pillar (half broken) - She has the power to seal her consciousness and reshaped the universe within her own consciousness. Hence she formed the fake Mitakihara.

A2: Fake Mitakihara is inside Homura's Soul Gem.

Q: Was there another memorable line comparable to the one at the end of ep 12?

A: Take what you watched during the end of the second movie (especially the trailer to movie 3) and there you go.

Q: <Kazumi> Why is Sayaka breakdancing?

A: That's her transformation scene.

Wait, she did dance in the opening of the movie, with Kyouko, beside a crying Homura...
A2: As you can see, all character transformations in this sequence are different dance styles. Maybe Sayaka got breakdance because she is the most compulsive (or repulsive, depending on your stance on her) character of all quintet.

Q: How did Homura become a witch? I heard it involves disturbing imagery.

A: Homura was eventually going to be one, just as everyone else was, but the process was accelerated by QB because she realized the plan to observe, capture, and take over of Godoka. She decided to turn into one so that she can be killed inside her own labyrinth (and inside QB's barrier), thus eliminating the need for Godoka to show up to save her.

A2: This suicidal intent meant to protect Madoka from Kyubey, ready to intercept and gain control over her.

Q: If Godoka is on a higher plane of existence, how can she "come" to get Homura if Godoka literally exists in every location at every point of time?

A: Same way as the other Mahou Shoujo were also saved in the TV series.

Q: Is there a new set of Runes to decipher or did they stick to the old text and musical ones?

A: Too many. If you know Runes to begin with. That's great, but if you haven't by now, do so.

Q:How many times did Mami's mammies appear on screen?

A: Lost count. There is however at least one full cut that has Mami's boobs shown...no...no nudity, of course.

Q: Was there any new chair metaphors?

A: Yes, remember the cuddling scene in the Movie opening? Think of an extremely screwed/gory version of it. One of it, shows Madoka standing up, doing a cross, Jesus crucified-like post and fall down, motionless and lifeless.

Q:What happened to the megucas after the Homucifer rebuild? Do they continue hunting witches/wraith or Homucifer took care of them all?

A: Witches do not seem to appear in that rewritten world. Everyone sort of living normal lives. Nagisa turned into a normal school girl and is seen going to school with her friends, Madoka turned from a cheerful happy girl into a rather timid, shy, yet soft and normal spoken girl...until Homura offers to guide her around the school that Madoka is shown her eyes turned golden, signifying that the Godoka powers still reside within her.

It's a direct reversal of the start of the series, with Madoka returning to Japan after three years in America and Homura showing her to the nurse's office.
Sayaka's memories are somewhat altered, thanks to Homura. but whether Sayaka's memories are fully altered or not, remains unknown for now.
Note the irony of Sayaka remembering things from the previous worlds but anybody she told about it would just think she's a weirdo.

Q: Speaking of 'gory', how violent/disturbing is the imagery in the movie?

A: Personally it's not so traumatizing/disturbing actually, but I'd say they brought out that eerie mood quite well. It's rather subjective, though.

A2: Less than 2nd episode of anime series, but has WAY MORE witchworld visuals.

Q: What is the context for this Cake Song[1] which was extracted from the audiorip?

A: The cake song is basically the 5 of them captured the Nightmare (Shizuku Nightmare to be exact), and did a somewhat "Are you the cake? No it's someone else, are you the cake?" kind of guessing game. Maybe there is a reference behind that.

Q: Did you feel that everyone was in character, or was the characterization poor? How about the overall plot? Did it feel like it was well-written, or cheesy grimderp a la psycho-pass?

A: The plot is intriguing, and the ending is hard to swallow - but whether you like it or not, it's really up to you. There are praises and criticisms from different movie reviewers, but Urobuchi wrote the story splendidly. Just like the TV series, the ending could be just taken as is, but there is also room for sequels. It's definitely not a cliffhanger ending. Not many script writers can actually do what he did.

Q:How did the other megucas, including the supposedly dead Sayaka end up in Homura's soul gem world?

A: It's not really "dead", more like it's how Homura envisioned her perfect world is like. So in her "dream world" or "envisioned world" (or whatever you call it) - Everyone lives, fighting like a sentai team, and live normally without any repercussions. Until Homura started to question that something is wrong with it...

It's like what QB said (along the lines of, need exact quote of this though) "What a paradox, You actually questioned the world you have actually created with your own two hands"

Q: But then how did the team save Homura from becoming a witch? It was all in her mind?

A: Nagisa and Sayaka were created by Godoka to sneak into Homura's labyrinth, and thus their plan was to save her from the get-go. Later Nagisa told Mami, Kyoko, and Madoka about it.

A2: More "brought with" than "created by", and kept on the down-low until the others' disillusionment advanced.

Q:There was a dialog between Homura and Sayaka in the dream world, along the lines of "Mami did not know the existence of Witches (because she is from the current timeline, and only know about Nightmares? Wraiths?), but you do. What are you?" I assumed that it's the real Mami stuck in the dream world and Sayaka might be just the imagination of Homura. What do you think?

A: Wraths do not appear in Homura's world. And yes, since in the rewritten world, witches do not exist, thus Mami and Kyouko do not have any knowledge of that, hence it's heavily implied that Mami and Kyouko are the real one living in the real world but trapped inside Homura's dream world (though it doesn't explain how Bebe comes into the picture being Mami's best friend). And Sayaka is the Sayaka that Homura envisioned her as throughout the previous universe, which is why she can freely transform or even utilize Oktavia's powers. Hence Sayaka being Homura's imagination wouldn't be too far of a stretch.

A2: It is explained, largely during Kyubey's late exposition dump, that Homura's barrier drew/allowed in certain individuals (Mami and Kyouko among those from Ultimate Madoka's universal restructuring). Madoka took advantage of this to reach Homura, and entrusted her own relevant memories to Sayaka and Nagisa, who had already been taken into the Law of Cycles. Both of these two played dumb while the others were puzzling the situation out.

Q: Bottom line: Does this ruin the franchise? Should I be happy or upset?

A: This might ruin your image of Homura for you, but it definitely is not ruining the franchise. The movie is still doing strong in Japan, even after months since its release. As to how you should react to the movie, it's not something that someone should tell you to do.

Q: Besides Madoka and Homura, who are the most relevant characters in Rebellion?

A: Nagisa. It at least confirmed who Charlotte REALLY is before she turned into a witch and mogu mogu'd Mami.

To add, I said Nagisa because Homura began to struggle and go against, while questioning Bebe's validity of existence, thus making both Mami and Homura fight to the death, kickstarting the entire journey to truth (even though Homura started with Kyouko first). Bebe = Nagisa.
Nagisa is also the one who informed Mami about the truth behind the world they're living in.
And aside from Nagisa...real world QB, because.....well it's QB.
A2: Madoka and sayaka are, Nagisa acts more as a plot device than a character. Madoka and Sayaka both act as supporting characters, both helping homura directly to realize her situation and to forgive her or impress upon her that her desires aren't bad. In a way, Homura is often paralyzed in taking action, Madoka and to a lesser extent, sayaka, both give her the push to realize that she's not so wicked she needs to die, and that her desired outcome isn't really so bad. by contrast, Nagisa affects things not through her actions, but by her existence, so she is far less relevant in the story, and could replaced by anyone in witch form. She is largely irrelevant.

Q: Expanding upon the last question, how relevant is Sayaka in this movie? How much screentime does she gets compared to the other characters?

A: Let's see, what did Sayaka do in the movie.

She definitely acts a lot more like her original personality without the despair she went through. She's also gotten a lot stronger, acting as a offensive attacker to the Nightmares, along with Kyouko.

She was the one that saved Homura from being chained by Mami after the death battle between the both.

She is shown, or implied to be stronger than Homura in the dream world, probably because she can utilize Oktavia's powers.

She, and Kyouko had a heartwarming reconciliation scene when banding up with others to save Witch Homura Please, tell us more! - Basically it's a what-if thing enacted if Kyouko's voice were to actually reach Sayaka when she turned into Oktavia in the previous universe. It's almost to the point of love confession.

She appears, along with Bebe and Godoka when Godoka descended from an open dimensional space to get Homura (though that ended disastrously)

She is the first to question Homucifer after she reestablished the entire universe, which ended up her memories altered.

That's all I remember so far. You'll decide whether she's significant from then on.
P/S: This is a rather personal observation, but I think Kyouko gets a tiny little bit more screen time than Sayaka.

Q: Do Madoka and Homura have a final battle in the movie?

A: No.

Q: Is Homura a witch by the end of the movie? There seems to be a lot of evidence pointing towards this conclusion, and I hear she transformed because of love, not despair. Is this true?

A: Homura is, shown as a Puella Magi Devil, at the same level as Godoka (her Soul Gem transformation..Ultimate Soul Gem? is a some sort of proof that she is). After all, God creats the world, the Devil influences it, and that the devil also rebelled against god (hurray for Bible references. Thus it's also a rebellion.

However you can refer to line 41 of this Q&A section for hints and speculations.
Edit: Homura mentioned that she was a devil that rebelled against the Godoka. What made her a devil is also explained by herself... "What darkened my Soul Gem was not despair", "The ultimate emotion of human ... hotter than hope and deeper than despair. Love. You will never understand". According to the explanation in the movie brochure, she is "Akuma Homura" which means "Devil Homura" and her Gem is "Dark Orb".

Q: What do Kyouko and Mami do throughout the movie, and what happens to them in the new universe?

-->Anything specific they do? I hear Kyouko drove with Homura to find out they couldn't go to the next city, and then there's the scene with her and Sayaka, and that's all I've heard. I've heard nothing about Mami so far, so I don't get why people are complaining Kyouko is less relevant than her.

A: Kyouko and Mami are two key person in the movie that does not know anything about witches nor their sufferings from the previous universe (even if Homura tried to ask them about it - This actually kickstarted the gradual plot twist). So what they do would depends on which universe you're talking about: If it's Homura's dream world, they are normal Puella Magis acting like themselves just like how they used to be in the previous universe sans the memories of witches and all that. In real world, things don't change much because both of them don't appear much to actually tell the difference... As for what happens to them in the Homura rewritten universe...they go to school normally, but it didn't show them being close to each other as each character acts individually, so I'd assume they don't know each other in this new universe anymore. Don't take that assumption for granted though.

At least Sayaka knows both Kyousuke and Hitomi...
Let's break down what Mami did in the movie, shall we?

She is the leader of Puella Magi Holy Quintet (ahaha oh wow the name)

She is the one that introduced Homura to the rest of her peers, Homura is the last one to join.

Well she is also the one to be shown realized that a wild Nightmare has appeared. Oh, that was a fanservice scene as she just finished taking her bath...

Mami has a friend - and that's Bebe. According to the movie: Bebe is her biggest support when she is lonely and without her she would have broke down a long time ago.

Mami cannot agree with what Homura is trying to do to Bebe because Homura knew that Bebe was Charlotte, the one that made Mami lose her head. But since Mami does not have any memories of that, they fought.

Mami also fought with the other 4 to save Homura in her witch form.

Mami was the one that referred Godoka as "The Law of Cycle"

That's about it.
Now, let's see what Kyouko did.

Kyouko, like Sayaka, is the front line offensive attacker in her group.

The first one to be approached by Homura and asked about her lost memories was Kyouko

You're right, Kyouko agreed to test Homura's doubts about the world they are living and thus they tried to take a bus and travel to her previous destination, or so called her hometown (Kyouko's base of operations before she declared she was done with the place and join Mami), only to find out that they couldn't reach the place, running in loops.

There's a lof of scenes with showing her with Sayaka. Most prominent one is the ones mentioned before - they had a reconcilation scene because of what happened during the previous universe.

Kyouko is also with Mami when Homura is saved after her witch transformation and the battle (in real world) and also seen Godoka's advent to retrieve Homura.

Regardless, Mami, Sayaka and Kyouko are supporting characters in the movie. The focus is mainly on Madoka and Homura, but the spotlight is definitely Homura.

Q: So is it safe to assume that all the promotional material/clips took place in the fake soul gem universe? I dunno, I see that scene with Madoka, Kyouko, and Sayaka fit in context with Homura's universe, with Kyouko asking Madoka about her stay in America and Sayaka telling her to back off. But then again, I haven't wacthed the movie.

A: Bingo. Everything you see in Mezamashi TV (the show which introduces some new clips of the movie) all took place in Homura's dream world/fake soul gem universe. As for Kyouko asking Madoka about her stay in America...Was there a scene on that? The only one I remember that Madoka came back from America is during the end of the movie after Homura re-established the entire universe.

It's rather obvious by now: Don't you think Homura's appearance throughout the promotional clips being weird? Ponytail, glasses, then her shield... In the real world she no longer uses the shield nor her time stopping powers anymore.

Q: Sorry I've been asking so many questions, I just have a lot to ponder about the film. So, context for multiple Incubators? Are they all Kyubey's bodies, or separate Incubators?

A: No problem. As it is shown in the movie - yes, multiple Incubators are shown, As far as it's shown, each incubators are different as well. And they are all massacred...apparently. It is still unknown if all of them are dead. Some Japanese fans even joked that the next movie would be "The Counterattack of the Incubators".

Q: New theory’s popped up on /a/ saying the Homura plans to play villain a la Code Geass’s Zero Requiem. It would make sense, considering that Devil Homura would fit as a lord to the Majuu/Wraiths/Demons, not to mention that Homura says to Sayaka that she expects to become a new threat after all the Majuu are finished and that it gives an excuse for Incubators (sans Kyubey) and Puella Magi to exist in a potential Season 2. What are your thoughts?

A: This will most likely happen. I for one still believe that the Homura I know all the time is still there somewhere...She probably need a wake up slap from Madoka, but as of now nothing can be said because I'm not the guy who likes to spectulate 1000 different possibilities of what's going to happen in the future.

But based on observation and what I understand from the movie so far (and clearly shown): Madoka is shown to actually still contain her powers and is actually struggling to break free (the background of the hallway of her school is shown distorted with a background of galaxies, and her eyes turned gold) but Homura hugged her and things went back to "normal". Considering Homura can freely juggle one's memories. It is likely that she is controlling her right now. So to break the excpetion, I'd say that Madoka will be the one that will change things again and play an extremely important role in the future. As for Sayaka...as her memories are now controlled, she is probably powerless to do anything now, but who knows what can she do in the future? I'll be looking forward to that as well.

Q: What's up with the Homuarmy? A cake tank and nuke I can understand, but every previous incarnation of Homura through the timelines? Any other parties involved in World War Witch besides the Puella Magi, Godoka, the witches from the TV series, Homulilly, and the Incubators?

Alright, thanks for clearing some things up. :)

A: There is only one Incubator in that so called World War Witch...Oh, interestingly, no one listens to that QB either. The ones who fought in that battle would be the main 4 Puella Magis + Bebe/Nagisa. Sayaka is particular helpful in this one as she can utilize Oktavia's powers. Well considering it's established that each Witch will have her own minions, the so called Homuarmy are Homura Witch's minions. The ones that destroy these minions are Nagisa and Sayaka.

A2: Other witch familiars are seen during that last battle, as entrusted to Sayaka and Nagisa.
And no, it's not Homulilly. If anything, it reminds me more of Walpurgis Nacht (Homura witch is damn huge). There is also one particular symbolism in her witch form: Her upper face is cut off, leaving only her mouth.
A2: According to official materials, the witch seen is "Homulilly", but notably different from the previously seen design.

Q: Any Nightmares beside Hitomi's in the film? Also, any details on what causes her to turn into a Nightmare, beside Kyousuke dumping her for his violin?

A: Strangely, The Nightmare at the very, very beginning of the movie and Hitomi Nightmare were the only Nightmare shown...The reason that turned her into a Nightmare? Hitomi tried to ask Kyousuke out for a date on Sunday, but Kyousuke said he'll be busy on Sunday due to violin practice (as his recital is coming up soon)...that made Hitomi rant about how she like Kyousuke that works hard but he didn't work hard to pay more attention to her, then...well we all know what happens next.

Q: How exactly does Homura go about trying to turn herself into a witch?

A: For this question I may have to rewatch the movie. But basically when Homura finally found the answers to her doubts about the fake sould gem/dream world, she delieved a some sort of wham line stating that the one who created the whole world is actually herself (she was already half witch right at the start of the movie), after doing the final experiment: She didn't collapse or turned lifeless after being 100 meters away from her Soul Gem, followed with a scene where she used her gun to shoot her Soul Gem, crushing it.

We are then shown scenes of Homura arguing with QB in the real world (This is the part where the conversation gets very long and I couldn't catch everything, but if I'm not mistaken it does tell how she became the state she was in, probably because her time was up). However QB mentioned something that made Homura snap and she basically replied with a "don't mess with our emotions" line, thus completely turned into a witch. In the dream world, a whole load of meteors fell from the sky (You can see that particular scene from the post The Eternal Story ED movie 3 trailer), destroying the whole city. A lot of QBs (the real world QB, not the dream world one) were massacred in the process as well.

A: That's the scene where she stabbed herself to summon Oktavia during her fight to save Witch Homura?

A2: It probably has to do something with her reason to become a witch: her heart was crushed, metaphorically speaking. Also, background resembles the one with Elsa Maria fight, when Sayaka went full berserk.
A3: Oktavia van Seckendorff's new profile indicates that she can appear wherever there is water. Sayaka is using her own blood as substitute for water to summon Oktavia.

Q: Is their any possible way that the main reason Homura has decided to distance herself from the others but keep them and Madoka inside her gem is because the state outside of it is far too unstable but also because she wants Madoka to fall in love with her again 'naturally'? Like basically saying she just wants everyone to end up acting like nothing's wrong until everyone's found their happiness without stuff like fate or predestined love getting in the way? Because from how this sounds, it seems a lot more like she's actually ended up creating a universe much like the one in Evangelion's TV ending version of episode 26 and the spinoff manga where they are living in a kind of highschool AU type thing. So all she wants to do is make sure that allows for closure and she'll be Madoka's enemy until Madoka's able to convince her that she loves her for being Homura and not for constantly saving her. What do you think of this?

A: The reason why Madoka made a wish back in the previous universe is to ensure that no one will have to turn into witches and thus break the cycle, allowing Puella Magi to hold a better hope in fighting for a better future. Homura defying the Law of Cycle and her turning evil basically means Homura does not actually understand what Madoka really wants. You can argue that she actually does but she is against the notion of selfless love so she does things better than what Madoka has pulled for her wish, but let's use this analogy (be it terrible or not): Let's say you fall in love with a girl. But a girl ended up falling in love with another guy and they ended up dating, a happy couple. Would you look aside, forgot about it and wish her happy while sacrificing your own love and feelings, or you're going to force yourself on her and have her on your own, even if it means doing something society would hate you for, like: rape?

I personally think Homura knows the consequences of pulling something like this. She personally knows that pulling this is actually going against Madoka's wish and thoughts. Which is why Homura mentioned in the movie that they will become enemies in the future. It's not really like Evangelion where you had OMEDETOU trolling you around, in fact there is a difference: Shinji ACCEPTED everything on his own free will (Instrumentality if I'm not wrong) and thus leading up to that point. But in Rebellion, nobody expected Homura to actually pull something like this. In fact it's so sudden, if I'm Madoka, I'd have ask Homura why a thousand times before I can even reach for an answer. That's basically what Sayaka is trying to confront Homura about. Things are pulled against their will and thoughts, and Homura basically succeeded in it. If it's not out of despair nor love (which some say it's out of love), I'd say it's out of obsession. I for one don't consider love as obsession, which is why I may see things differently.

A: Madoka will be very angry with Homura once she discovers what she did, but right now, no one is benefiting more than Madoka is. Why does Madoka have to leave her family, life and happiness and spend the rest of eternity in some lonely place? Anyone can save the world, why does it have to be Madoka? You don't think that Madoka doesn't have the right to live with her family do you?

In fact , everyone admit when they were in the labyrinth, that the labyrinth is the life that they dreamed for. It is wrong for Homura to recreat the labyrinth, but she certainly does that for everyone else's sake, (or Madoka's sake, actually. Benefiting others is only the side affect), she keeps doing what she thinks is best for Madoka. Madoka chooses to save the world, because for her, the world means something, but for Homura, Madoka is everything. So she doesn't care if she's destroying the world, after all, it is this love for Madoka that lights up her "soul gem" , the love for Madoka and Madoka alone. And yes, I am the one that argues this is a selfish vs self-less matter. They both did nothing wrong, i believe and am pretty sure there exsists multi/opposite justice in this world.

For more explanation about Akemi Homura please go to Wikipedia.com.

A: Wow, some of these answers are just really bad, to be fair, this question is pretty long winded and nonsensical. The answer here of course is no. Homura does what she does for Madoka's own happiness. In the movie Madoka is timid and distant at the movies end, this is something that DOESN'T please Homura, and we've seen this in episode 1. Never the less, Homura likely expects it to pass, just as she expected Madoka to become her enemy after that talk, why would she expect that? If she was confident in her ability to keep Madoka caged why would she even give it a hint of recognition vocally? Ultimately what Homura intends to do in this world is open to interpretation, but why she is doing it is spoken pretty clearly, literally even, a world for Madoka's happiness. In the above answers crazy hypothetical boyfriend scenario, Homura would likely pull strings not out of jealousy, but more like an overprotective Father and a daughters 'boyfriend'
A3: Homura's purpose had, for the many loops she made, been to save and protect Madoka. However, come her breaking point in Rebellion, her Soul Gem is corrupted beyond what should be possible, not out of grief or despair, but out of "love". While Madoka is still important to her, Homura now has her own interests in mind, no longer denying her personal desires for the sake of others. Homura's universe is how she wants things to be -- Madoka living a normal life included -- and all are largely subject to her will in accordance, so long as Homura can maintain it.

Q: So in the new movie, are all the characters except Homu, Kyubey and Godoka just dream-world replicas of the originals?

A: According to Japanese accounts who watched the movie: Mami and Kyouko are real. They are trapped within the dream-world created by Homura. This explains why they don't have memories of the previous universe.

To make it easier for you: Mami, Kyouko = Real, Homura = The one who created the world, Madoka, Sayaka, Bebe/Nagisa = Replicas, QB = Depends (The real QB is heavily implied to have actually observed the whole thing from outside)
EDIT: Just a little clarification here, but it's said in the movie that Madoka became trapped in Homura's fake world due to Kyubey, so it is the real one, just temporarily deprived of memories and powers (this may even be what gave Homura the idea to do this later as well). Sayaka and Nagisa were with Madoka when it happened; essentially, Madoka brought them with her from where dead Puella Magi reside. Nagisa says that she was just tagging along for fun, but for Sayaka it's probably that she wanted closure with Kyouko.
A2: They're all real. Nagisa tagged along for the cheese.

Q: Why did Nagisa disguise herself? I mean, the explanation I saw was that Kyubey is not familiar with Bebe, but why would he be familiar with Nagisa in her human form? He seems to not know her in the fight scene, too. In fact, why did Sayaka and Nagisa wait at all before taking action against Homulily? Why didn't they simply tell the others? Sure, the explanation given was that they were waiting for "the right time," but what does that even mean?

A: He contracted Nagisa. Of course he would recognize Nagisa. In the context of the fight scene, he seems more surprised that Bebe and Sayaka are displaying their full powers.

As for why they waited, think about who benefits from keeping the illusion going. Or more precisely, who does NOT benefit. By maintaining the illusion, Sayaka and Nagisa force Kyubey to waste time (and perhaps energy). If Kyubey decides the experiment is a waste, he will stop it.